Henry David Thoreau Quotations: Music
Music is either a sedative or a tonic to the soul.—Journal, December 1839
Music is the sound of the circulation in nature's veins. It is the flux which melts nature.—Journal, 24 April 1841
Music soothes the din of philosophy and lightens incessantly over the heads of sages.—Journal, 23 June 1840
Music wafts me through the clear, sultry valleys, with only a slight gray vapor against the hills.—Journal, 8 January 1842
Nature makes no noise. The howling storm, the rustling leaf, the pattering rain are no disturbance, there is an essential and unexplored harmony in them.—Journal, 18 November 1837
One music seems to differ from another chiefly in its more perfect time, to use this word in a true sense. In the steadiness and equanimity of music lies its divinity.—Journal, 8 January 1842
Returning, stopped at Barrett's sawmill while it rained a little. Was also attracted by the music of his saw. He was sawing a white oak log; was about to saw a very ugly and knotty white oak log into drag plank, making an angle.—Journal, 19 May 1856
So few habitually intoxicate themselves with music, so many with alcohol. I think, perchance, I may risk it, it will whet my senses so.—Journal, 16 October 1857
The earth song of the cricket! Before Christianity was, it is. Health, health, health, is the burden of its song.—Journal, 17 June 1852
The music of all creatures has to do with their loves, even of toads and frogs. Is it not the same with man?—Journal, 6 May 1852
